Hittite clay tablet recording a treaty between Idrimi of Alalakh (now Tell Atchana) and Pillia of Kizzuwatna (now Cilicia) dating to c.1480 BC and excavated from Tell Atchana by Sir Leonard Woolley (WA 131447). The text deals with fugitive slaves and was stamped with a seal in the Hittite manner or a raised central area and there is mention of the Mitanni King Paratarna (Idrimi's overlord).

Alalakh, or Alalah, is the name of an ancient city and its associated city-state of the Amuq River valley, located in the Hatay region of southern Turkey near the city of Antakya (ancient Antioch), and now represented by an extensive city-mound known as Tell Atchana. Alalakh was founded during the Middle Bronze Age in the 2nd millennium BC, as one of the first great cities of the Fertile Crescent. The first palace on the citadel of Alalakh was built c. 2000 BC, contemporary with the Third Dynasty of Ur.

The written history of the site may begin under the name Alakhtum, with tablets from Mari in the 18th century BCE, when the city was part of the kingdom of Yamhad (modern Aleppo). A dossier of tablets records that King Sumu-epeh sold the territory of Alakhtum to his son-in-law Zimri-Lim, king of Mari, retaining for himself overlordship. After the fall of Mari in 1765 BCE, Alalakh seems to have come once again under the authority of Yamhad. King Abba-ili of Aleppo bestowed it upon his brother Yarim-Lim, in a reorganization of his empire that seems to have followed a revolt, and a dynasty of Yarim-Lin's descendents was founded, under the hegemony of Aleppo, that lasted to the very end of the 17th century (according to the middle chronology) at which time Alalakh was destroyed, most likely by Hittite king Hattusili I, in the second year of his campaigns.

After a hiatus of less than a century, written records for Alalakh resume. At this time, it was again the seat of a local dynasty. Most of the information about the founding of this dynasty comes from a statue inscribed with what seems to be an autobiography of the dynasty's founding king.

According to his inscription, in the first half of the 15th century, Idrimi, son of the king of Aleppo may have fled his city for Emar, traveled to Alalakh, gained control of the city, and been recognized as a vassal by Barattarna. The inscription records Idrimi's vicissitudes: after his family had been forced to flee to Emar, he left them and joined the "Hapiru people" in "Ammija in the land of Canaan", where the Hapiru recognized him as the "son of their overlord" and "gathered around him"; after living among them for seven years, he led his Habiru warriors in a successful attack by sea on Alalakh, where he became king.

However, according to the site report, this statue was discovered in a level of occupation dating several centuries after the time that Idrimi lived, and there has been much scholarly debate as to its historicity. Nonetheless, archeologically dated tablets tell us that Niqmepuh was contemporaneous with the Mitanni king Saushtatar, which would seem to support the statue's claim that Idrimi was contemporaneous with Barattarna, Saushtatar's predecessor. The socio-economic history of Alalakh during the reign of Idrimi's son and grandson, Niqmepuh and Ilim-ilimma is well documented by tablets excavated from the site. Idrimi himself appears only rarely in these tablets.

In the mid-14th century, the Hittite Suppiluliuma I defeated King Tushratta of Mitanni and assumed control of northern Syria, including Alalakh, which he incorporated into the Hittite Empire. A tablet records his grant of much of Mukish's land (that is, Alalakh's) to Ugarit after the king of Ugarit alerted the Hittite king to a revolt by the kingdoms of Mukish, Nuhassa, and Niye. Alalakh was probably destroyed by the Peoples of the Sea in the 12th century, as were many other cities of coastal Anatolia and the Levant. The site was never reoccupied, the port of Al Mina taking its place during the Iron Age.

Excavation

The remains of the city preserved by Tell Atchana were excavated by the British archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley in the years 1935-1939 and 1946-1949, during which palaces, temples, private houses and fortification walls were discovered, in 17 archaeological levels reaching from Chalcolithic (Level XVII, c.3400 –3100 BCE to Late Bronze Age (Level 0, 12th century BC).

After several years' surveys, a University of Chicago team had its first full season of excavation in 2003. In 2004, the team had a study season in order to process finds. In 2006 the University of Chicago stopped sponsoring the project.

Excavations at Alalakh have produced a body of written material that demands comparisons to that from Mari and Ugarit. About five hundred cuneiform tablets were retrieved at Level VII, (Middle Bronze Age) and Level IV (Late Bronze Age). The inscribed statue of Idrimi, a king of Alalakh after c. 1500 BC, has given a unique autobiography of Idrimi's youth, his rise to power, and his military and other successes (now in the British Museum). Akkadian texts from Alalakh include a few word lists, astological omens and conjurations, but primarily consist of juridical tablets, which record the ruling family's control over land and the income that followed, and administrative documents, which record the flow of commodities in and out of the palace.

Source: Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia, and the British Museum